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Thursday, January 15, 2009

The weather is really crazy around here in North Texas. One day it's warm and one day it's chilly, and then the next day we're freezing are patooties off. I sure wish mother nature would make up her mind. All I can say is ONLY in TEXAS!

We have another cold snap coming in so a big pot of Pinto Beans and Hamwould hit the spot perfectly. A lot of people think pinto beans and cornbread is old school food, but I love it, nothing is better than a big bowl of pinto beans with a wedge of cornbread on the side. It just screams country cooking.

Anytime I have a big ham bone, leftover ham or smoked ham hocks. Pinto beans and cornbread is the first meal that comes to mind. Beans are really good for you and it is a pretty cheap meal to boot. This recipe makes a large quantity so it's perfect for feeding a crowd.

Darn that looks so good. Break off the ham meat from your ham hock or ham bone and place back into the beans and serve with a wedge of homemade cornbread. I like my beans with a bit of fresh onion. That's optional but so good.

Add the baking soda to the water, and let the beans soak at least 6 hours or overnight. Drain the water from the beans and rinse.

Add the beans to a 6 quart crock pot and cover with fresh water. You want the beans to be covered by at least one inch. Add the pinto bean seasoning, chicken bouillon, sugar, vegetable oil, pepper and onion.

Add one of the following for additional seasoning, one ham hock, ham bone, or slice of country ham cut into pieces.

Place lid on crock pot and cook on high for about 6-8 hours. make sure the beans stay covered with water, so check occasionally. If you need more water, then add it. Taste the beans after several hours of cooking and add more seasonings as needed.

In 6 hours, test beans and if they are cooked. Remove ham bone and pull of the meat or remove meat from ham hock and serve. Don't forget to serve with a wedge of cornbread.

When I go home I always make my momma make me fried chicken, fried potatoes, pinto beans and cornbread. Now thats my meal :) With a cold glass of sweet tea yum and omg blackberry cobbler thanks now I am hungry and home sick, lol..

Hi there! This sounds like a great recipe and a great website as well..I'm a single mother of two daughters and we love to cook together, I can't wait to see what else is on here! My question is: I like more of a gravy consistency than a soup consistency, any ideas how I can make that happen? Thanks so much.

wow. talk about good. the incentive for me to even make this came from inspiration of my grandma who grew up in texas and who is consistently making beans in her crockpot. i just made a few adjustments to the seasoning to taste adding a bit more salt, sugar, garlic, and onion powder.. (i think i added too much pepper). :-(

but other than that... great! topped with sour cream, raw onions, hot sauce, with hot buttered cornbread on the side. thanks.

This is my very favorite Mommy's Kitchen recipe! I shared it with co-workers too and everybody just loved it. The only thing that I will change next time is to not add so much pepper. It was definitely over-spiced for my taste.

Hi Sandra I just usually do a couple shakes of the baking soda. If I were to measure I would say about 2 tablespoons. It will be rinsed off before you add them to the crockpot so dont worry about the baking soda staying in the water. Welcome to Mommy's Kitchen.

This is one of my favorate recipes, thank you! Mine always turn out really watery, so today i wisked in about a cup of corn startch and let heat for about another 20 mins. it turned out nice and thick. i also added fresh garlic and garlic salt... yum!

This recipe looks great! We're from Tennessee and my Momma always cooked hers in a crock pot and it'd smell so wonderful when we got home for Sunday lunch. We always use Great Northern Beans, though, and when they're soft they're always thick and delicious. I'd like to try pintos though and see if the flavor's different. I never heard of adding any oil though, what does that do for the recipe?

Instead of adding baking soda to your beans, you can also fight the gas problem by adding a strip of kombu to the pan when you cook the beans. It also adds a lovely savoury flavour to the bean dish. Kombu is a Japanese sea vegetable, which you can buy dried. You only need one piece of it to a big pan of beans, so it is quite economical to use.